The Arizona sentinel., 1887-08-27

get chance always have some other occupation, and it is a fact that the legitimate one is more profitable than the illegitimate one in nine cases out of ten" Thus began my inform ant. whose name you may look for little further on.
 But in this city there is vast army of professional criminals, l said, ''men who are classified and whose industries have special forms, imply ing cunning and originality.
 My dear sir. you have been reading the newspapers or talking to detec- tives. There isn't dozen. If really | clever men-if men with m0iicum of | bralns that belong to clever people were to devote their talents to roguery | society couldn't exist. The methods employed by thieves, for example, to attain their ends look very cunning and well planned to one to whom they are first revealed. But take any one of them and examine it. and you will see how flimsy it is. A sneak thief wants to get into the till of a corner grocery. His accomplice comes with a tape line and begins to measure the sidewalk in front of the door, or to measure the wall, or comes in wagon and begins to throw out a lot of boxes. The grocer steps out to inquire; is held in conversation, asked to hold the end of the measure or pass back the boxes; the sneak is in and away, and the trick is off A saloon-keeper is known to keep pocket-book stuffed with money in the inner pocket of his vest. The pick-pocket knows it is difficult place to touch. Two accomplices come in when he is alone, both of them laugh ing heartily-one with tape measure. Well, that was dead loss for me, says one. Set lem up They laugh, ask the saloon-keeper to drink, and explain that they were betting on the neighbor. The saloon- keeper becomes interested; the more so as rounds are being called, and then the loser wants to get even. A bottle of wine is staked and the victim asked to measure, the new bet being on his girth. Objection is taken to the vest; off it comes, and the
 sneak thief-a third party-soon has the leather"
 '.Now, that's arful, certainly" " said IL
 ''No such thing; it is most trans parent and simple. It couldn't sue ceed were in not that the victim is a fool. But these are exceptional cases of such good planning as crooks can do. But, after all, suppose a man of
 brains-real brains, such as you know
 plenty of-were to devote himself to
 the planning of ways to get other
 peoples money without an equiva-
 lent and went at it with the energy
 that men give to the practice of their
 profession or to the pursuits of com
 merce, where would such schemes as this be? Nowhere. You hear of a great
 burglary. The newspapers which re-
 port it dwell upon the fact that it has
 been carefully planned and that the
 house had been plotted, for a diagram
 which the rascals had left in their
 flight was found. Whats to hinder
 any more from learning every room
 and every door in New York city?
 There's the builders plans, the insur-
 ance companies plots and the build
 ing departments open files. A little
 watching and good deal of
 guessing makes up the rest of the
 burglars knowledge. Of course, his
 tools are of the finest workmanship.
 Rats! The chances are ten to one that
 they consist of bar of iron, which, being carried by a burglar, is called a
 jimmy; a dark lantern. a copper
 hammer, chisel and flask of pow der and handkerchief with holes in
 it for mask"
 But there are cases where men
 have gone further than make a few nasty preparations; have hired adioin-
 ing stores and tunneled and burrowed into banks and vaults with infinite pa.
 tience and labor"
 Bah! How manyP You say ter and I say one. Whatever you say will allow ten per cent. But can you
 recall anyP'
 , "Wen, the Covington Ky.) bank. , That's one. You can't go on. Bu : there have been probably twenty rob berries committed in that way in tho last thirty years, and none of then . amounted to very much in the way o 7 returns outside of two or three. Yol 5 make up your mind to the fact tha 3 the returns of robberies are vastly ex ) aggerated. That's not accounted fo 2 by the fact that the thief has to dis
 pose of his swag at discount amount ing to a sacrifice. It's because tn = man robbed tells lies. If you want t make liar of a man rob ant 7 then pump him on values. l remem e Der man who yielded me S47. Wha r do you think, he squealed' for S4, 700 and 1 got the reputation of being , great crook on the strength of tha ,; mans lies. One day was taken in o k suspicion in Buffalo. My recor S was known, and when the chief c l. police ladled out his mess of lies to tn Il reporters my little trick of S47 becam t $47, 0O0 Finally it got to $147,00O 1 where it sticks, and when 1 was sen O tenced in Brooklyn the detective name O my offense at.that figure to show wha n a dangerous criminal was. didn' d mind that so much. I didn't object
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